Education

Page Content

“My focus at the County has
been on changing the first five years, as changing those years has the strong
potential to change everything in the years that follow. We must focus our
efforts on preparing our children for success in school and then make strategic
investments to continue to support those students as they pursue their K-12
education and beyond.”

-- Supervisor Simitian

Educare: early childhood education programs -- Educare of Silicon Valley is an early learning regional center serving children, families, communities and practitioners. The first Educare facility in the State of California began in East San Jose in 2014, with the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors’ helping to fund the outfitting of 12 classrooms and outdoor learning spaces. Learn more >>

School First - at-risk students in Mountain View -- The School First program was
championed by Supervisor Simitian in 2014 and ran for two years. The School
First program was designed by the Mountain View-based Community Health
Awareness Council (CHAC), to work with three local schools with higher than
average dropout risk factors. CHAC provided an array of support services
tailored to each student’s needs.​Learn more >>

Dream Catchers -- Through Supervisor Simitian’s
encouragement, the County helps fund after-school academic programs aimed at
closing the opportunity and achievement gap for children in the Palo Alto Unified
School District. Called Dream Catchers, the program is directed at middle
school students who are tutored and mentored by Stanford University
undergraduate student volunteers. Learn more >>

Early College Promise -- ​Foothill Community College
launched the Early College Promise program in 2017 to bolster the enrollment
and graduation of historically underrepresented students, including ethnic
minorities, low income and first-generation students. Under the program, high
school students dual enroll at Foothill College for two years for free.
With county funding initiated by Supervisor Simitian, this program was expanded
to increase the number of participants, from 300 to 550 students. Learn more >>

Safe Routes to School​​ -- Students walking or bicycling
on the Homestead Road corridor face challenging street conditions along their
route to school because multiple jurisdictions converge in this area.
Supervisor Simitian took on these challenges with the County providing one-time
funding to develop a conceptual plan for additional on-street safety
improvements. The plan will then become the basis for multi-jurisdictional
joint grant applications for funding to implement the improvements. In order to make crossing
busy County expressways safer for children walking and biking to school, the
County has also installed pedestrian detection systems at high student-traffic intersections. Sensors detect
pedestrians and bicyclists in the crosswalk and lengthen the signal cycle to
give the pedestrian additional time to cross the street.​ Learn more >>​